Obituary of Thomas James Tisdale

Thomas James Tisdale, 77, died peacefully on February 6, 2023. Tom was born November 1, 1945 in Seattle, Washington. He went to grade school and high school in West Seattle and lived there for a good portion of his life. He attended Washington State University and graduated from orthopedic physician’s assistant school in Iowa. Tom worked as a PA in Minneapolis before moving to Colorado. Tom worked in Colorado for several years before moving back to West Seattle.

In Washington he enjoyed sailing, golf and photography. While in Washington Tom moved away from the medical field and went into sales which he did for the rest of his career.

Tom was introduced to his future wife, Rochelle Rosenow, by a mutual friend in 1973. They both led separate lives for the next 16 years until Tom invited Rochelle to join him on a trip to Australia in 1989.

They ultimately fell in love and got married in 2000.

Tom and Rochelle enjoyed many years of traveling together throughout North America and Europe.

One of Tom’s favorite trips was their cruise to Greece. In addition to golfing together, they both enjoyed attending musical productions at the Arvada Center.

He is survived by his wife, Rochelle, siblings Gary Tisdale and Jane (Tisdale) Johnson.

He was preceded in death by both parents, Ted and Meda Tisdale, and older brother Mike Tisdale.

A Celebration of Life will be held on April 22 at Indian Tree Golf Course, 7555 Wadsworth Blvd, Arvada, CO 80003 starting at 1 pm.

In lieu of flowers, hug someone you love, contributions may be made to the Parkinson’s Association of the Rockies. https://parkinsonrockies.org

I will not be in Colorado to celebrate Tis's life but I ran across this photo from 1978. A bunch of us were at a concert in Boulder, I think it was Fleetwood Mac & War & The Doobie Brothers.  

Rest in Peace Tis, many fun memories in the bank from our many years of friendship.

He liked it

 I finally got Jude's quilt delivered to him.

He is 9, I wasn't sure he would be thrilled.  

It probably did help that his name was all over the fabric & tee-shirt.

He liked it a lot.

Later, the adults were sitting at Kyle's island visiting and Jude came to talk to his Dad.

He was asking permission to sleep on the living room floor for the night. Since there was no school the next day,  Dad said that was okay. 

(It was a lucky coincidence that Kyle was wearing one of Jude's tee-shirts❤)

I looked over later and saw that the quilt was already being put to good use!

Stanley and Jude each wrapped up in a fleece.

The best appreciation of my sewing. ❤

It was a fun visit, great nephew Gage was home so took a quick pic with him as well.

😎

Saturday Drive 4/8/23

 This is going to be a TLDR (too long, didn’t read) kinda post.  

Don't feel like you have to try, but it is a day that I won't soon forget. 

It started with a drive North. I needed to clear out of my house so that the housekeeper could clean my house.  It was a lovely sunny day, 50⁰ on my car thermometer.

I stopped to eat at 'Brunches' in Solon Springs. Under new ownership, this is a great place to eat. They close at 2pm, but they serve a bloody mary or a mimosa cocktail to go with a nice brunch menu.

From there I headed towards The Sandcastle.  I wasn't sure that the town roads would be passable, but wanted to look & maybe try.  Comiskey Road looked iffy; I turned on it, drove about 1/4 mile and then turned around.  I did not want to risk getting stuck in what looked like some very soft sandy mud and standing water.

So, now what to do....I had a thought that ice cream might taste good.  Hayward is not too far away, and I know there is an ice cream shop there. So, off I went.

During my whole drive I was listening to a audio book called 'Green Light' by Matthew McConaughey.   It is read by the author and is really a good listen.  The miles melt when I'm listening to a good book, sometimes I find myself further down the road than I even expected..

Once in Hayward, I was reminded that many stores there are seasonal, and one of those is the ice cream shop.  "See you in the spring" was the sign on the door.

So, I decided to head back towards home, thinking of a stop at A&W to get my ice cream fix.  That did not work out, the A & W at Trego is now North of the Hwy 27 & Hwy 53 interchange.  This is different with the recent addition of a new roundabout & interchange.  So,  I was making another new plan.  I thought of Dairy Queen since I had seen my first robin of the Spring.  

I usually go to the DQ in Chetek, and figured my housekeeper would be done by the time I made that loop and headed for home.

The Rice Lake exits came and went, I continued on towards Chetek.

But, I got listening to Matthew McConaughey telling stories of his youth, and cruised right on by the Chetek exit. My first chance to turn back was at New Auburn.  Adding a few unnecessary miles to my drive.

Finally, I exited at Chetek and made my way through what was a very busy town, to the DQ.  Nice weather & Saturday, there were folks out and about.

Just as I was pulling up to DQ, my friend Mary called. I found a place to park so I could safely chat. 

It was 3:17pm.  

Mary & I chatted for 17 minutes.

We hung up & I went through the drive-thru at DQ and grabbed my treat.

Once I got my DQ, I headed for home, driving North on County Road SS.

By now, I had to pee, badly, but I thought I could make it home 🤞. 

About 4 miles from home, an Ambulance came up from behind running lights & sirens, I pulled over and it passed by, going fast.  I wondered if I was going to run into an accident or something, I hoped not as my bladder was to the max.

(One other day I came upon the road blocked for a bad car accident and had to find an alternative route home and there is no good detour).

 By now,  I had to go really bad.

Sure enough,  an accident or something, just south of Cameron.  Lots and lots of emergency vehicles, I could not really see what was what. 

I was the first car to come to that ambulance parked across the road, almost to Hwy 8 & SS in Cameron.  Since I was the first car, I stopped leaving plenty of room to turn.  Wasting no time, I did a quick t-turn and headed back to Chetek to the Kwiktrip for the bathroom.  I made it in the nick of time.

From there, I went South to hop on Hwy 53 and go North to the Highway O / Rice Lake  exit to get home, wanting to avoid whatever was happening on SS. 

 Once safely home, I heard the sad news that the situation was an officer involved shooting. A traffic stop and 2 officers are now dead.

The traffic stop was at 3:38pm.  

If I had not spent 17 minutes on the phone, I believe my timing would have had me driving in that exact location of the traffic stop at the time of incident.  

It gives me chills to think of it.  

Even if I would have talked 5 minutes less, I would have arrived on the scene before that ambulance would have had a chance to block the road.

It could have been a life changing moment.

I'm so very thankful that I pulled over & took that phone call from Mary.

♦️

It's a very sad time for 2 families & for the small towns of Chetek & Cameron. Unimaginable losses.

💔

April Fools Snow

 On Friday, 3/30/23, it rained, thundered and there was a lot of lightning.  Towards bedtime, it was sleeting, maybe a little hail. Sunday morning I woke up to 10+ inches of new snow. Not exactly Spring weather.

 The good news was blue sky & 🌞. 

My snowplow guy showed up just after the town plow went by. Once he cleared some snow, the melting got started.

By early afternoon the driveway had melted off.

Quite the prank by mother nature.